“Tyndale is as lothe, good, tender pernell, to take a lyttle penaunce of the prieste, as the lady was to come any more to dyspelying that wept even for tender heart twoo dayes after when she talked of it, that the priest had on Good Friday with the dyspelyng rodde beaten her hard on her lylye white hands.”
The church accounts sometimes refer to the purchase of rods for this purpose by the wardens.
The Sepulchre.—The service of Maundy Thursday morning included the consecration of two hosts, besides that which the celebrant received at the Communion of the Mass. At the conclusion of the service these two hosts were carried to some becoming place till the following day, when one was used in the Mass of the Presanctified, and the other was placed in a pyx and put along with the cross, which had just been kissed and venerated, into what was known as the “Easter Sepulchre.” On the afternoon of Good Friday it was customary for people in the towns to make visits to the various churches to pray at these sepulchres. There is no expense more constantly recorded in all the parochial accounts than that for the erection and taking down of the Easter Sepulchre. Generally, no doubt, it was a more or less elaborate, although temporary, erection of wood, hung over with the most precious curtains and hangings which the church possessed, some of which were even frequently left for this special purpose. Here in this “chapel of repose” the Blessed Sacrament was placed at the conclusion of the Mass of the Presanctified, and here the priest and people watched and prayed before it till early in the morning of Easter day.
EASTER SEPULCHRE, ARNOLD, NOTTS
There are, however, in England some interesting instances of permanent “tombs” being erected to serve as the Easter Sepulchre. Some people in their wills left money to have a structure for the “altar of repose,” worthy of its purpose, built over the spot on which they themselves desired to be buried.
After the morning service of Maundy Thursday, the high altar, and then all the altars in the church, were stripped of their ornaments and cloths and were left bare, in memory of the way our Blessed Lord was stripped of His garments before His crucifixion. In the evening of the same day all the altars were washed with wine and blessed water, the minister saying at each the prayer of the Saint to whom the altar was dedicated; then he and all the clerks, having devoutly kissed the stone slab, retired in silence.
Good Friday.—The chief feature in the morning service of Good Friday was undoubtedly the “adoration of the Cross” and the ceremonial kissing of it, better known in England as the “Creeping to the Cross.” The meaning of this act of worship is set out in Dives and Pauper so clearly that there can be no doubt as to what our forefathers intended by it.
“Pauper.—In the same manner lewd men should do their worship before the thing, making his prayer before the thing and not to the thing.
“Dives.—On the other hand, on Good Friday above all in holy Church men creep to the church and worship the cross.